Functional study on the cooperation of ASXL1 and RUNX1 mutations for myeloid leukemia transformation

BACKGROUND: Our previous studies showed that RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations were frequently co-existed in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and clonal evolution of RUNX1 and/or ASXL1 occurred most frequently in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with myeloid blastic crisis. The molecular pathogenesis of cooperation of RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations has not been reported yet. METHODS: Lentiviral-mediated stable transduction of RUNX1-WT/MT (R135T) in K562 cells which harboring ASXL1-MT (Y591X). RNA was extracted from stable cell line and used for gene-expression microarray analysis. RESULTS: For in vitro study, we overexpressed RUNX1-WT/MT (R135T) in K562 cells which harboring ASXL1-MT (Y591X). We found that RUNX1-MT augmented cell proliferation, colony formation, HOXA gene expression and inhibited megakaryocytic differentiation in ASXL1-MT K562 cells compared to RUNX1-WT or empty vector control. We performed gene expression profile of K562 cells overexpressed with EV, RUNX1-WT and RUNX1-R135T mutation. Gene expression microarray data revealed that 147 genes upregulated more than 2-fold in RUNX1-R135T expressing K562 cells compared to EV control cells. From gene expression data analysis, we found that inhibitor of DNA binding 1 (ID1), a key transcriptional regulator of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) lineage commitment, is upregulated in RUNX1-R135T-transduced K562 cells compared to EV and RUNX1-WT-expressing cells. Lentiviral transduction mediated overexpressed RUNX1-WT/RUNX1-R135T in K562 cells. RNA extracted from stable cells and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.